In the car these days: The Emperor of all Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which I only picked up because it was on sale at Audible. And because I do enjoy delving into something I know nothing about—pure gain, even if I end up forgetting most of it. So far, as I expected: (1) harrowing tales of mastectomy from the days before anesthetics and antisepsis, (2) the stylistic sheen of an anonymous professional editor, including, at the beginning of each chapter, (3) quotations of classic and lesser works the author (and the editor, for that matter) doubtfully ever read. And, of course, (4) lots of technical jargon, including metastasis, the process by which cancer shows up here and there throughout the body.

I thought I might chase down the origins of metastasis. The Middle-Liddle gives μετάστασις as

a removing, removal

a being put into a different place, removal, migration

a changing, change, as in Sophocles' θυμῷ μετάστασιν διδόναι, to allow a change to one's wrath, i. e. suffer it to cease

a change of political constitution, revolution

Lots of ancient authors used the term. But the big question, of course, is how it shows up in Plato's dialogues. It occurs twice in the Laws.

No surprises here. But check out the Timaeus 82a, which is worth quoting at some length:

τεττάρων γὰρ ὄντων γενῶν ἐξ ὧν συμπέπηγεν τὸ σῶμα, γῆς πυρὸς ὕδατός τε καὶ ἀέρος, τούτων ἡ παρὰ φύσιν πλεονεξία καὶ ἔνδεια καὶ τῆς χώρας μετάστασις ἐξ οἰκείας ἐπ᾽ ἀλλοτρίαν γιγνομένη, πυρός τε αὖ καὶ τῶν ἑτέρων ἐπειδὴ γένη πλείονα ἑνὸς ὄντα τυγχάνει, τὸ μὴ προσῆκον ἕκαστον ἑαυτῷ προσλαμβάνειν, καὶ πάνθ᾽ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, στάσεις καὶ νόσους παρέχει For seeing that there are four elements of which the body is compacted,—earth, fire, water and air,—when, contrary to nature, there occurs either an excess or a deficiency of these elements, or a transference thereof from their native region to an alien region; or again, seeing that fire and the rest have each more than one variety, every time that the body admits an inappropriate variety, then these and all similar occurrences bring about internal disorders and disease.

It doesn't take much to see in Plato's four elements a precursor Galen's four humors. And in Plato's explanation of sickness as a false distribution of elements an anticipation of Galen's understanding of disease. In fact, Galen understood cancer to be the metastasis of black bile, concentrated into a hardened nodule or whatnot.

So how did Joseph Récamier strike on metastasis to describe his findings in 1829? Was the term just floating in the ether? Was it currently in use to describe something else? Was he a philological hobbyist? Did he, after a particularly gory day at work, dismayed by the reappearance of a presumedly vanquished tumor, pour himself a drink, reach for his beloved set of classics, and strike upon this specimen of teleological anatomy? Now that would make for the nice opening of a novel.